1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument, and, more particularly, to an electronic musical instrument which simultaneously generates musical tones with two types of timbres by a single input operation for a musical performance.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional synthesizer type electronic musical instruments operate in various modes that include a tone mix mode which permits simultaneous generation of tone signals with two timbres at the same pitch by a single musical input operation. To play music in this tone mix mode, a tone mix switch on an operation panel must first be activated. Then, a display section displays characters which indicate the tone mix mode being selected as well as those characters which indicate various parameters for each of the first and second musical tones, such as the volume, timbre, pitch and chorus effect. A player operates a cursor key to move a cursor through the display of these parameters to the position where the volume parameter for the first musical tone is displayed, and sets a value key to set the proper volume level. The player then operates a memory bank key and a memory number key to select a desired timbre from among those timbres set in advance in the synthesizer, sets the desired timbre as the timbre for the first musical tone, and operates the cursor and value keys to adjust the pitch of the first musical tone. Subsequently, the player similarly operates the cursor key, value key, memory bank key, memory number key, etc. to set the volume, timbre, pitch, etc. of the second musical tone. Accordingly, the player needs to repeatedly operate these keys in addition to operating the tone mix switch, and thus needs time and labor to set the parameters of two types of musical tones for musical performance in tone mix mode.
According to keyboard type conventional electronic musical instruments, timbre switches associated with different types of timbres for selecting and setting the first timbre (master timbre), timbre switches associated with different types of timbres for selecting/setting the second timbre (slave timbre) and a switch to designate the first or second timbre are provided on a panel. It is difficult as well as costly to provide so many timbre switches, etc. on the panel within a limited space.